The EU court has largely confirmed a record fine by the Brussels Commission against the Google group Alphabet. On Wednesday, judges in Luxembourg essentially dismissed the Californians’ lawsuit. she only decreased the fine due to restrictions on competition from 4.3 to 4.1 billion euros. Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager will be relieved to note the decision after the judges lifted high penalties imposed by competition authorities on American semiconductor manufacturers Intel and Qualcomm this year.
Google became that four years ago fine imposed, because the company, which is now called Alphabet, had forced mobile phone manufacturers, among other things, to preinstall its search engine and web browser. Only producers who followed this instruction were also allowed to set up the important Google app store on the phones. This is the portal through which customers can download new programs and without which the mobile phones are of little use. In the EU, most smartphones run on Google’s Android operating system.
With these gag agreements, Google wanted to unfairly secure its dominant position in search engines and thus its advertising revenues, the Commission argued. The judges agreed with this view. Alphabet can now appeal to the highest court, the European Court of Justice. Already a year ago confirmed the court first instance another billion-dollar fine by the Commission against Alphabet. The point here was that Google had preferred its own offer – a price comparison service for goods – to the disadvantage of other price comparison services when displaying search results.
Is the verdict too late?
Monique Goyens, head of the EU umbrella organization for consumer organizations (BEUC), called the ruling “significant because it confirms that Europe’s consumers must have real choice between search engines and browsers on their mobile phones and tablets”. The CDU MEP Andreas Schwab, however, complained that the judge’s verdict came “many years too late”.
A new landmark EU piece of legislation that Digital Markets Act, abbreviated as DMA in English, is intended to significantly accelerate the Commission’s action against unfair tricks by powerful digital corporations. The regulation allows the Commission to impose special rules of conduct on Internet platforms such as Google to protect smaller competitors.